


Well-Seasoned

by Caelum_Blue



Series: Caelum's Canonverse [11]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Cooking, Cultural exchange, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 05:58:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12292752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caelum_Blue/pseuds/Caelum_Blue
Summary: Written for Aang Week 2017. Prompt - Seasons.Aang and seasonings throughout the seasons of the show as the seasons pass.





	Well-Seasoned

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 7 of Aang Week. Prompt: Seasons.
> 
> I incorporated, like, as many definitions of seasons into this as I could. Seasonings, show seasons, weather seasons. Seasons doesn't look like a real word anymore. :P

“What’s that?” Aang asked, watching Katara rub the fish Sokka had caught with some sort of green powder.

“Qanik,” she said, her smile bittersweet. “It’s a seaweed - we dry it out and grind it up into powder to use as seasoning. But it’s really hard to make - you can only harvest qanik two months out of the year, and since half the tribe left to fight we haven’t been able to harvest a lot.” She flipped the fish over and started rubbing the powder on its other side. “I found a jar of it with the stuff Gran-Gran packed for us. I guess she wanted us to taste a bit of home.”

The last of the Water Tribe food packed by Gran-Gran had run out half a week ago. They still had plenty of supplies thanks to the good people of Kyoshi Island, but Aang could tell his friends were starting to realize just how far from home they were traveling. Sokka was suspicious of every unfamiliar vegetable, and Katara was taking rice cooking as a personal challenge.

Aang gave her an encouraging smile. “That was really thoughtful of her. Spices don’t go bad like other food - you can probably make it last until we get to the North Pole!”

“I hope so,” Katara said. “And I hope they have qanik, too. Or something like it.”

“What’s it taste like?” Aang asked.

“Like a gentle slap of sea on your food.” She finished with the fish and regarded the spice jar. “Would you like to try some?”

“I’d love to! I’ve tried Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation spices, don’t think I’ve had any Water Tribe kinds before.”

“I’ll add it to your rice,” Katara said, and she shot a glower at simmering the cooking pot. “I’m _pretty sure_ I managed to not undercook it this time. Or overcook it.”

“Eighth time’s the charm,” Aang grinned. “Are you sure you don’t want me to help - ”

 _“No._ I’ve _got_ this.”

Or she was _getting_ it, at least. The rice was only a _little_ overcooked. But the qanik made up for it.

 

* * *

 

“Guess who splurged at the market!” Sokka crowed as he and Toph came back to their camp, arms laden with supplies.

“I’m guessing you guys,” Aang said from where he was sitting very still on the ground. “I’m getting better at this earth sense thing. I actually felt you guys walking before I saw you!”

“Great job, Twinkletoes. Maybe in a few decades you’ll manage to get the drop on me!”

“Splurged?!” Katara repeated, looking up from the cooking pot to shoot them an accusing look. “Sokka, we’ve been over this - we can’t go wasting our money!”

“Relax, Sugar Queen, it’s _my_ money,” Toph said. “I grabbed some before I left my parents’ house. Anyway, here.” She held out a small bottle filled with reddish-brown powder. “I thought your cooking could use a boost.”

“If we were in the South Pole my cooking would be _perfect,”_ Katara huffed.

“Aw, I think you’ve been doing great cooking on the road,” Aang said, getting up and stepping toward Toph.

 _“I_ like your cooking,” Sokka said.

“You’ll eat anything,” Katara shot back.

Aang took the bottle Toph was still holding out. “Hey, this is five-spice!”

“What’s five-spice?” Sokka asked.

Toph’s eyes widened. “Seriously? You guys have trekked across the Earth Kingdom _twice_ and you don’t know what five-spice is?”

“Most of that time was spent avoiding fireballs!”

“I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume it’s a blend of five spices,” Katara said.

“Brilliant deduction, Sweetness.”

“Star anise, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and fennel seeds,” Aang said absently, turning the bottle over in his hands. “It’s good.”

“I figured dinner could use some more flavors.”

Katara took the bottle from Aang’s hand, opened it, and took a sniff. Her eyes lit up. “Oh! I think we’ve had this before in some villages, I just never thought to ask what it was. It’s good!”

“Glad you agree with me,” Toph said with a wave of her hand. “Can you add it to tonight’s dinner? I’m blind, I’d like to enjoy my other senses as much as I can.”

 

* * *

 

“Aang,” Zuko said, “you _do_ know what that is, right?”

“Sure I do,” Aang grinned. “It’s a seven-pot pepper.”

“And do you know what _that_ is?”

“The hottest pepper in the world.”

“And what are you planning to _do_ with it?”

Aang grinned. “Eat it!”

Zuko was starting to severely regret bringing them all to the Ember Island house. He’d completely forgotten about his mother’s prized pepper garden, which was apparently still growing taste bud-murdering fruit after six years of abandonment. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Sure I’m sure! Kuzon, Bumi, and I challenged each other to eat one of these once. We wound up crying on the floor while Monk Gyatso nearly passed out laughing. It was great.”

“...Okay then. So long as you know what you’re getting into.” He looked from Aang to Sokka. “Do _you_ know what you’re getting into?”

“I’ve been eating your spicy food since we hijacked a Fire Navy ship,” Sokka said, turning the pepper in his fingers by the stem. “I’m prepared for this!”

Zuko looked to Katara, Toph, Suki, and the peppers they held. “Are _you_ guys sure you want to do this?”

“You only live once,” Toph said, sniffing the pepper in her hand.

“C’mon, Zuko,” Suki grinned, holding out another pepper. “It’s a team-building exercise!”

“You can’t come up with any _better_ team-building exercises?”

“Our original team-building exercises involved whooping your butt,” Katara pointed out.

“Apparently they still do,” Zuko muttered, taking the pepper from Suki. He took a moment to contemplate it, and recalled fond memories of his mother and cousin cry-laughing on the ground as they’d eaten these things while a horrified Ozai watched. “Why do all team-building exercises have to hurt?”

“Okay guys!” Aang said. “We’ve got jugs of water for when we need them! Let’s do it!”

They all bit into their peppers.

“MY MOUTH IS ON FIRE!” Suki shrieked.

“THIS IS TERRIBLE! I THINK I LOVE IT!” Toph shouted.

“WHY DID I DO THIS WHY WHY WHY??”

“WATER! WHERE’S THE WATER?!”

By the end they were all laid out in the courtyard, watched by a worried Appa and Momo, who were very confused as to _why_ their humans had gone and bit into what obviously smelled like torture.

“Katara,” Sokka moaned, “Katara my tongue needs healing.”

“M’healin’ m’own tongue firs’!”

Aang was curled into the fetal position beside Zuko, giggling through his tears. “Ohhhhhhh that was just as bad as I remembered it.”

“Why did my mother grow this monster?” Zuko panted, staring up at the clouds. The cool air on his tongue helped a bit.

“Because she had good taste?”

“I’m starting to think she had _no_ sense of taste.”

Aang laughed. “C’mon Zuko, it’s the hottest pepper in the world! Of course she’d want it in her garden!”

Zuko slowly blinked up at the sky and turned to look at Aang. “The seven-pot pepper isn’t the hottest pepper in the world.”

“Yeah it is! It’s the - it’s - it’s been a hundred years, oh, don’t tell me…”

Zuko managed to twist his tortured mouth into a grin. “A while back, Komodo Island bred a _new_ strain of pepper. They call it the Komodo Dragon.”

“Oh, spirits,” Aang said, and he pushed himself up from the ground and peered towards the path that led back towards the pepper garden. “Did your mom plant that one too?”

 

* * *

 

One autumn evening, shortly after arriving back in Ba Sing Se after a sojourn to the Eastern Air Temple, Aang insisted on overseeing dinner. One of the packs on Appa’s saddle was bulging with odd vegetables and plump fruits that Aang handled with a bittersweet smile. Sokka resigned himself to a meal without meat, but the promise of a traditional Air Nomad fruit pie, baked to Monk Gyatso’s exacting standards and not meant to be thrown at _anybody,_ more than made up for it.

“I want to try and find more sky bison,” Aang said as he took over the Jasmine Dragon’s kitchen. “Next time I have time to go off to the mountains, I’m gonna go looking.”

“You really think you’ll find some?” Katara asked, laying out cooking utensils. Beside her, Mai was eyeing Iroh’s kitchen knives judgmentally.

“I’m sure there’s more out there. There were _always_ wild herds,” Aang said. “And just because people _say_ something’s extinct, it doesn’t mean it _is.”_ He shot a pointed look at Zuko, who answered with a wry smile, and Iroh, who smirked into his teacup. “Anyway,” he said, turning back to the onion-like plant in his hand. “Jimbu always tastes better when you fry it in ghee.”

“What’s ghee?” Toph asked. She was sitting beside Iroh, teacup in hand.

“A special kind of butter. We made it from bison milk.”

“Aang, why is there a rock in with all the food?” Suki asked from where she and Ty Lee were sorting out the contents of the saddlebag.

“A _rock?”_ Toph repeated. “What kind of rock?”

“It’s pink!” Ty Lee grinned. “It’s so pretty! I love it!”

“Rose quartz?” Toph surmised. “Twinkletoes, I know you said you need to feel the earth, that doesn’t mean you need to _eat_ it!”

Aang laughed. “It’s not quartz, it’s salt,” he said, taking the rock from Suki. A bit of earthbending and part of it crumbled into tiny pieces in his hand. He handed the rest over to Toph.

“Salt?” Katara asked. She and Sokka were frowning at the rock in Toph’s hands.

So was Zuko. “That doesn’t look like salt.”

Aang laughed. “Not everyone gets their salt from the sea, guys! We used to mine it out of the mountains.”

“Pink salt!” Ty Lee looked absolutely delighted.

“We’ve got salt mines in the Earth Kingdom,” Toph said, turning the rock over in her hands before handing it back to Aang. “I’ve never been too clear on colors, but from what I understand it’s not usually pink. Anything special about pink salt, Twinkletoes?”

Aang shrugged. “I don’t think so. It’s just...pink.”

“Being pink is enough to make anything special,” Ty Lee said.

“You’re special enough,” Mai muttered, and Ty Lee beamed.

“It’s special to Aang,” Katara said, and she looked at the pile of jimbu sitting on the counter. “So do we cut this or is there some other way to prepare it?”

“We used to dry it to use all year round,” Aang said. “But you can use it fresh, too. Let’s save the leaves and chop up the rest. We can dry the leaves out and fry them in butter later. It won’t be ghee, but it’ll still be good.”

“Doesn’t sound hard,” Katara said, handing Aang a knife.

“No harder than rice,” Aang grinned.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated.
> 
> I invite you to take a moment to consider Katara, fresh out of the South Pole and needing to learn how to cook all sorts of new foods she's never seen before so she and her brother and new friend don't starve to death before they even hit the equator, attacking learning rice cooking with the single-minded determination that serves her so well in life. Probably could've just let Aang do it, but nope, Katara needs to learn ALL THE THINGS.
> 
> All the seasonings I've mentioned are real.
> 
> [Qanik](http://www.macleans.ca/society/life/a-gentle-slap-of-the-sea-for-your-food/) \- the Inuit name for a species of fucus seaweed that is ground into spice. Qanik is also an Inuit word for snow, though, so usually that's what pops up in search results.
> 
> Five-spice is a popular Chinese seasoning.
> 
> The 7 Pot pepper is one of the hottest chili peppers in the world, and the Komodo Dragon is a version of it that was bred in recent years that is particularly hot. I chose this one as the hottest for the Avatarverse because of the name. Also I headcanon that Komodo is an actual island in the Fire Nation, since they have Komodo rhinos. However in our world the current hottest chili pepper is the Carolina Reaper, which gained its title in 2013 after being cultivated by some dude who decided he should breed two former world record peppers and see what their demon hellspawn tasted like. Anyway, the idea of Ursa being a pepper aficionado came to me as I was writing this and now it's my headcanon, because Ursa deserves better character development. And also bonding time with her nephew, and now I need to write about my beloved dork Lu Ten eating chili peppers.
> 
> Ghee is a clarified butter used in Tibetan and Indian cuisine. I'm guessing the Air Nomads would've made it from bison milk. I'm also guessing that being vegetarian didn't stop the Air Nomads from drinking milk.
> 
> Jimbu is an herb from the onion family that tastes like a cross between onions and chives and grows in the Himalayas.
> 
> Himalayan salt is pink due to mineral impurities that get mixed in with the halite. It doesn't have any special health benefits or anything, it's just pretty salt.
> 
> I'm on tumblr at [caelum-in-the-avatarverse](https://caelum-in-the-avatarverse.tumblr.com/) if you ever wanna come see me ramble about random research in the Avatarverse.


End file.
